4.1 Overview

The C++ Standard Library provides ten alternative forms of containers and three container adaptors. In this chapter we briefly identify these forms, consider their characteristics, and discuss how you might go about selecting which form to use in solving a particular problem. Subsequent chapters then go over each of the different forms in more detail.

Table 6 lists the container types provided by the C++ Standard Library, and describes the most significant characteristic of each. Table 7 does the same for the container adaptors.